Portal Development

Agency Initiatives - Categories

The Agency Initiatives have been structured around categories, according to which best portrays the relevance of each initiative to achievement of the E-government Strategy:

Category 1: Portal development

New Zealand has several all-of-government and sector portals, and some of these have undergone recent redevelopment. Design redevelopments have considered user needs. The changes are not merely cosmetic, but reflect some rethinking of underlying processes – improving the data structure to enhance search capabilities and information provision. More transactional possibilities have also been enabled. The following are key examples:

• newzealand.govt.nz – search capabilities on the all-of-government information portal have been improved, and it has become the key reference point for people seeking New Zealand government information.
• business.govt.nz – this portal enables business people to locate government business information and services sourced from relevant web sites.
• jobs.govt.nz – the gateway to employment opportunities within New Zealand government has been upgraded to a "one-stop-shop" connecting job-seekers and advertisers.

Key points

• User-centric design of web interface and functionality
• Efficiency for participating agencies

User-centric design of web interface and functionality

Each initiative has entailed developing (or redeveloping) a web site that reflects appreciation of what a user is most likely to be seeking. Various site features – such as improved functionalities for search and online transactions, and content layout – have been reconceptualised to be more intuitive for the user to navigate. User research has been integral to the design decisions for these portals, which are geared towards the intended audiences. Some early steps towards greater personalisation of the user experience have also been taken. business.govt.nz, for instance, enables users to subscribe to an e-newsletter, receive email alerts, and save work and favourite topics to return to. jobs.govt.nz allows the user to receive email alerts with new jobs of interest within preselected categories.

jobs.govt.nz now also allows a job applicant to apply online for any positions that are listed. Business owners can use business.govt.nz to register for GST and apply for an IRD number simultaneously, and receive that number within minutes. Anyone can use the new, powerful search engine on newzealand.govt.nz to search exclusively within the New Zealand government domain and associated government online resources. In particular, the search capability includes a feature called "spotlighting", which presents enhanced search results for popular terms: "prime minister", for example, delivers a spotlight containing the prime minister’s photograph, phone number, email address, and portfolios, along with the more conventional range of links to relevant topics and news items.

Efficiency for participating agencies

While each web site has provided enhanced features for use by the general public, improved design also benefits participating State Services organisations. newzealand.govt.nz, for instance, no longer requires agencies to manually record and catalogue information about their services and resources to enable them to be discoverable. Improved functionality on jobs.govt.nz makes it much easier for agencies to post jobs, so that many more jobs can be found online.

Implications

These three initiatives have encompassed improvements to the presentation and orientation of government portals – but more importantly, they have entailed agencies' reviewing and enhancing their web sites' functionality. Agencies have undertaken research to understand user needs better. Some collaboration between agencies has also been necessary to achieve these enhancements. Increased capability has been developed to harvest and disseminate information more effectively, with a greater appreciation of the intended audiences. Nevertheless, there is also scope for some of this enhanced capability to be used more widely, and for it to be further developed, to continue to add value for users.

Redevelopment of newzealand.govt.nz, for example, has provided enhanced search capabilities and the spotlighting function described above. In future, such functionality could be extended to add more value for users: for example, additional spotlights could be developed continually, based on monitoring search activity and researching matters of interest. The spotlights would proceed from a search term to anticipate information, links, and related matters most likely to be relevant to the user, so that these potentially more meaningful results could be delivered alongside standard search results.

Some collaboration between agencies has been necessary to achieve functional improvements, such as technical integration between the Ministry of Economic Development and the Inland Revenue Department to enable the incorporation of companies online.

newzealand.govt.nz enhances user access to information by providing agencies with space to promote their products, services, and initiatives, and also a service for users to sign up for updates so that agencies can extend public access to their information and resources.

However, these initiatives have only just begun to explore and exploit the significant value that could be added. For example, linkages between agencies at these portals offer the potential for analysis of popular traffic paths across the government domain. A schematic representation and other associated information about these paths could be created and shared with agencies, to assist them to consider how to derive further benefit from these network movements. This might create opportunities for collaboration to improve information provision and better meet users' needs.